


Delirium

by Lakritzwolf



Series: Whumptober 2019 [3]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Delirium, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-11
Updated: 2019-10-11
Packaged: 2020-12-09 10:40:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,296
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20993459
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lakritzwolf/pseuds/Lakritzwolf
Summary: Written for Whumptober 2019Day 3: Delirium





	Delirium

**Author's Note:**

> Did I spent the better part of an hour reading about delirium and its causes and symptoms for a 1k fic? More likely than you think.

The lights went out with a crash, and for a moment the only sound was the soft clinking of glass shards landing on the concrete floor. The gust of wind that had blown down the corridor died down again.

“What the fuck happened,” Longfeather whispered, groping in his jacket for his witch light.

“I have no idea,” Andrew whispered back. “Felt like magic.”

“Warlock magic.”

They both turned towards the warlock of their party, a young woman who looked like someone in her mid-twenties but was actually close to two hundred. 

“That was definitely warlock magic,” Tara said again. “And a god-damn blast of it.”

“Was that Rey?” Longfeather asked.

“I have no idea,” Tare replied. “It was too far away.”

Andrew had found his witch light almost simultaneously with Longfeather, and they both lit them up but kept shielding them with their hands while Tara was guarding their rear.

The dark corridor before them looked exactly the same, apart from all the burst light bulbs in the ceiling lamps. 

“Maybe we shouldn’t have split up,” Longfeather said, and looked back over his shoulder. “We’ve been at it for hours and no sign of that nest.”

“Maybe.” Andrew huffed and slipped his witch light back to be able to wield both his blade and dagger. “I don’t like this any more than you do.”

They crept along the corridor as silently as they could, all senses trained on their surroundings. After rounding the second corner they entered a large room, but no traces of demons either. There were several other doors in that room, but only one of them was open.

“These fucking tunnels are a maze,” Longfeather hissed. 

“Yeah.” Andrew looked around as well. “Good thing we have a warlock with us. Not sure I’d find my way out again anytime soon.” 

Taking a deep breath, Andrew nudged the half-open door further open. He gestured at Longfeather and Tara to stay silent, and strained his ears. 

“I hear voices,” he breathed. 

“The others?” Longfeather asked, equally softly.

Andrew shrugged, and both activated the Nyx rune before Longfeather put his witch light away. 

But as soon as they stepped into the corridor, a creature fell from the ceiling with a hiss and a screech. Andrew impaled it and it vanished in a burst of embers and ash. 

“Seems we’re getting closer.” Tara summoned her magic, silver and blue curling around her fingers.

Blades extended, Andrew crept a few steps forward, Tara and Longfeather on his heels. Then he heard the voices again, and shouting, and screeching, and another blast of magic lit up a part of the corridor, coming from a room to the right. It was pale gold shot through with flaming orange veins. 

Andrew had never seen Lorenzo wield true combat magic, but he didn’t have time to admire it before there was another scream, followed by someone shouting Lorenzo’s name. 

He burst into a run, seraph blades at the ready. 

Finally, there was the nest. The grotesquely huge and ugly hive queen was hissing and screeching at the Shadowhunters, but was bleeding greenish ooze from a huge wound in her abdomen. Several of her long, thorn-tipped tentacles flailed about, and he could see two men down, no telling if they were still alive or not. But what made his blood run cold was the Shadowhunter who just caught a collapsing Lorenzo, whose chest was bleeding from a deep gash. 

He and Longfeather went at the queen that was already in her death throes, but by the time she was gone Lorenzo had lost consciousness. Tara portalled them out, right into the infirmary of the Institute.

Andrew helped the Shadowhunter who had caught Lorenzo with manhandling the unconscious warlock onto the nearest bed. Lorenzo muttered something under his breath, his eyelids fluttering while his head fell to the side before jerking back to the other. 

“What?” Tara leaned closer. “What’s he saying?”

“Need...” Lorenzo’s voice was a hoarse rasp, and his lips twitched. “Deplet...” the word petered out into a groan as Tara poured healing magic into the wound on his chest. 

“Demon venom,” she muttered.

“How bad is it?” Andrew asked, trying to keep his voice from trembling, with little success. 

“Not lethal, as far as I can tell now.” She leaned forward to inspect the wound. “But I think it’s better to get someone in who’s better at healing magic than I am.”

“Catarina?”

Tara nodded, and took a pair of scissors to cut Lorenzo’s shirt open. He jerked upright, eyes wide open but glassy and likely unseeing. Or whatever it was that he saw, it had nothing to do with reality. He threw up his hands, and a flicker of magic danced around his fingers in a sickly pale yellowish glow that instantly died away. Then he fell back with a groan, his eyes rolling back into his head.

“That’s total magic depletion, and a demon poisoning,” Tara said slowly. “He’s delirious.”

Lorenzo’s eyes were moving rapidly, but no matter how close Andrew leaned, he couldn’t understand a word of what he was saying. Suddenly his hands shot up again, in a gesture of protection and defence, and whacked Andrew right in the face. He felt the fizzle of magic on his skin for a second, but it was no more than a weak brush of wind. 

“Hey,” he said softly, leaning close again. He carefully took one of Lorenzo’s hands. “It’s okay. I don’t know if you can hear me, but it’s okay. You’re safe. The demon queen is gone.”

“Where...” Another hoarse whisper, and Lorenzo’s eyelids fluttered. Sweat was beading on his forehead. “Andrr...”

“I’m here.” Andrew ran his fingers over Lorenzo’s hair. “I’m okay. 

“Yo no tengo...” He groaned. “Too... too late... no...”

Andrew tried to calm him, to no avail. Wherever his mind was, Lorenzo couldn’t hear him. It was obvious he was in pain, and it was obvious he was afraid, and he tried to protect himself from whatever he saw, probably demons. But his magic was only a weak, pale glow, cold and flickering, his breathing shallow and fast. 

After taking a deep breath to stay calm Andrew asked a nurse for a piece of cloth, and used that to gently dab the sweat from Lorenzo’s face. He was muttering again, and suddenly he was shouting something in a language Andrew had never heard before, his back arching off the bed. But before Andrew could react, he went limp again. 

“It’s okay,” Andrew said, forcing his voice steady. “It’s over. It’s okay.”

He had never felt so relieved as in that moment when Catarina stepped to his side, and he anxiously watched her magic flow over Lorenzo’s twitching body. Looking up at her, he felt a cold knot form in his stomach when he saw her shake her head.

“It’s not lethal,” she said as well. “But that kind of venom is vicious, and together with the total depletion, there’s not much I can do. Most of the venom is no longer in his bloodstream, and I can’t really purge it.”

“So...” Andrew swallowed. “There’s nothing you can do?”

“Not at this point.” Catarina checked Lorenzo’s pulse again. “And I don’t know how long it’s going to take for him to get it out of his system. It’s up to him now.”

Andrew forced himself not to yell at her to fucking do something, because this wasn’t her fault. He just held on to Lorenzo’s hand, and prayed to the angels that he would be okay again. 

Lorenzo’s head sank to one side, and Andrew carefully wiped more sweat off his face. 

“It’s going to be okay,” he said softly, but he didn’t know if it was Lorenzo or himself he was trying to comfort.


End file.
